1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer networks and, more particularly, to computer communication with networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Access to the Internet is becoming increasingly popular with the general public. Users gain access through a variety of means, including personal Internet service providers (ISP""s) and high speed network connections through office systems, or fiber optic cable such as so-called cable modems, or high speed digital lines such as ISDN or xDSL lines. It is becoming increasingly important to support user access at all times, even as people travel away from their home and office. In addition to commercial ISP""s, who are in business solely to provide Internet access, many companies or institutions provide Internet access to employees, clients, or customers. For example, hundreds of users may be connected by an office system, or by university networks, or hotel systems for guests. Typically, a user will view Internet content through a graphical browser application, such as xe2x80x9cNavigatorxe2x80x9d by Netscape Communications Corp. or xe2x80x9cInternet Explorerxe2x80x9d by Microsoft Corporation. Such browsers are especially proficient at retrieving graphical Internet pages (files) from the xe2x80x9cWorld Wide Webxe2x80x9d (WWW) and displaying a combination of images, moving video, and audio.
The web page that is displayed when such browser programs are launched can typically be selected by the individual user. Such a page is referred to as a xe2x80x9chomexe2x80x9d page. Because the home page is displayed each and every time the browser program is launched, it has not escaped the attention of advertisers that there is a built-in audience for viewing ad content. As a result, many commercial enterprises have spent thousands of dollars designing web pages that users might find desirable enough to designate as their home page. Such a page becomes a jumping off point for the user during Internet access. Such web sites are referred to as xe2x80x9cportalxe2x80x9d sites.
As with magazine circulation, the ad cost (or value of) a portal site depends largely on the number of viewers that the site experiences. As a result, some Internet access providers have highly valued operations. For example, the America On-Line (AOL) service operates a proxy server, so that all AOL subscribers gain access to the Internet only through the AOL link. This means that all AOL users see the same home page, or portal site, which therefore can be valued for the delivery of ad content. The proxy server system, however, requires special purpose access software to be installed on the user computer, and also requires a large investment in infrastructure by the service provider. Moreover, despite having immense amounts of demographic data on subscribers, the home page displayed to subscribers is not generally adapted for the specific subscriber who is logging in.
Other portal sites are generally web sites with specialized content. For example, many Internet search engine and indexing services urge Internet users to adopt their respective home pages as a portal site. Some of these services include Yahoo, Excite, and Alta Vista. Other companies have developed their respective company home pages as portal sites for Internet users. Examples of these sites include Netscape Communications Corp., Microsoft Corp., and specialized services such as xe2x80x9cSidewalkxe2x80x9d travel information and xe2x80x9cZD Netxe2x80x9d computer publications and information.
One advantage of such portal sites is that they do not require any action by the user beyond pointing their browser to the site. There is no special access software or equipment to install, and the operation of the user""s computer is not changed. Thus, the content provider does not need to invest in excessive infrastructure or distribution of special software. Portal sites such as these web pages, however, do not offer particularized content. That is, all users see the same display page upon visiting the web site. The value of such portal sites would increase significantly if the presentation to users could be customized for each user. This would enable targeted advertising to be delivered.
Some sites can somewhat customize their presentation by storing user information, such as by maintaining xe2x80x9ccookiesxe2x80x9d on the user""s computer. When the user visits the portal web site, the web site server obtains information from the cookie and adjusts the information sent to the user for display. Examples of such modified web presentations include, for example, news sites such as MSNBC. While such techniques permit some amount of customizing the display, user viewing is entirely voluntary. That is, users may register with such sites to obtain particular information that they have preselected, but they are in no way obligated to visit such sites after registering. It would be more advantageous to content developers and advertisers if they could have assurance that certain users would be forced to view their sites when accessing web pages over the Internet.
From the discussion above, it should be apparent that there is a need for an Internet access technique that controls user access to web pages but does not require any specialized client-side software, and permits different content to be delivered according to the user who will receive it. The present invention fulfills this need.
The present invention provides a network in which communications between a user and a network are provided by receiving a user request for access to a network file during a user network connection session with a connecting network, determining whether the user has a connected user session state or a disconnected user session state with respect to a portal server, responding to a disconnected user session state by determining a user identity that specifies a physical location for the user and providing the user with a redirected page for display in a user graphical interface program in accordance with the determined user physical location identification by username entry and in accordance with service selection information, and then changing the user session state to a connected state, and responding to a connected user session state by routing the user request for access to the network file to a network server.
Other features and advantages of the present invention should be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment, which illustrates, by way of example, the principles of the invention.